.636 – Faceoff percentage for Notre Dame’s Liam O’Connor, seventh nationally and second in the ACC

Scouting Notre Dame

Notre Dame, 4-3 overall and 2-1 in the ACC, is coming off an 11-10 setback at Syracuse last weekend ... Two of the Irish’s three losses were by one goal ... Matt Kavanagh leads the offense with 20 goals and 33 points overall, while Conor Doyle has 13 goals ... Liam O’Connor has been outstanding at the X, winning 96-of-151 faceoffs for a .636 win percentage ... Stephen O’Hara has a team-high nine caused turnovers to lead the defense and Shane Doss is the final line of defense between the pipes with a 9.02 goals against average and a .489 save percentage ... Seventh-ranked Notre Dame is 1-1 at home this season with the win coming over Virginia inside the Loftus Sports Center ... The Irish average 12.14 goals per game and are allowing just 8.86.

About The Blue Devils

Duke, riding a five-game win streak, heads to South Bend, Ind., with a 9-2 overall record and 2-1 mark in ACC play ... Ranked third, the Blue Devils own ACC wins over North Carolina and Syracuse ... Jordan Wolf headlines the attack with 33 goals and 16 assists for 49 points, while sophomore Deemer Class is second in points with 36 (18g, 18a) ... Josh Dionne has 26 goals and Case Matheis has 12 to round out the attack ... Christian Walsh and Myles Jones both have hit hot streaks recently to push their point totals to 23 apiece ... Brendan Fowler is winning 64 percent of his faceoffs (160-of-251) and has 103 ground balls ... Luke Duprey is a defensive force with 19 caused turnovers and 33 ground balls ... Casey Carroll leads all close defensemen with 17 caused turnovers and 30 ground balls ... In goal, Luke Aaron is 8-2 with a 8.50 goals against average and a .560 save percentage ... Overall, Duke is averaging 13.79 goals per game, while giving up just 8.62.

Last Time We Met

Duke senior David Lawson registered a career-high five goals to lead the Blue Devils to a 12-11 comeback victory over Notre Dame in the 2013 NCAA quarterfinals ... Duke scored the game’s final three goals to rally from an 11-9 deficit in the fourth quarter ... The game featured nine ties and five lead changes with the largest lead being two goals by both teams ... Jordan Wolf added four assists and Josh Dionne had three goals as Duke avenged its regular season loss to the Fighting Irish ... Matt Kavanagh led the Irish with three goals and three assists, while Notre Dame goaltender John Kemp made 13 saves.

Last Time Out

Duke senior Christian Walsh tallied a career-high five goals and Brendan Fowler won 21 faceoffs as the Blue Devils extended their win streak to five with a 17-11 victory over Harvard ... Myles Jones added four goals and Deemer Class had a goal and three assists in the win ... Luke Aaron made 10 saves to keep Duke unbeaten at home this season.

In Common

Duke and Notre Dame share four common opponents, including two non-conference foes ... Both squads defeated Jacksonville and North Carolina, while the Blue Devils also own wins over Denver and Syracuse.

Battle At The X

Saturday’s game will feature a battle between two of the top faceoff men in the ACC and nationally ... Duke’s Brendan Fowler leads the ACC with a .637 win percentage at the X, while Notre Dame’s Liam O’Connor is right behind him at .636 ... Duke has lost the faceoff battle just three times the past two seasons with Fowler at the X ... Notre Dame has lost the battle at the X three times with O’Connor ... Two of those games - Penn State and Syracuse - were losses for the Irish.

A Win Over Notre Dame Would

• Make Duke 170-172 in the month of April

• Give head coach John Danowski his 340th career victory and 121st at Duke

• Be the program’s 501st victory

• Stretch Duke’s win streak to six games

• Be the Blue Devils’ first regular season win over Notre Dame since 1993

• Make Duke 3-1 in the ACC with a share of first place

Duke in the Month of April

Duke is 169-172 all-time in the month of April ... Under head coach John Danowski, the Blue Devils are an impressive 30-6 in the month ... Only three of those losses have come in the regular season ... Duke went unbeaten in the month of April from April 16, 2005 to April 17, 2010.

Duke Midfield Coming Together

In the past two games, Duke’s first midfield line of Deemer Class, Myles Jones and Christian Walsh have amassed 36 points (22g, 14a) ... The trio registered 23 against Syracuse and 13 more versus Harvard ... The Blue Devils’ first midfield contingent is a young group of sophomores in Class and Jones and senior Walsh, who is in his second year at the position ... The second midfield features freshman Jack Bruckner, sophomore Chad Cohan and junior Kyle Keenan with only one of them having played more than 10 games coming into the 2014 season ... All six midfielders have scored in the past two games and all have at least six points on the year.

Improved Shooting

With spring break came what the Blue Devils call shooting camp ... An extra session of shooting in the mornings during break appears to have had a positive effect as Duke’s shooting percentages improved by just over four percent as a team in the four games following spring break ... Sophomore Myles Jones made a 20 percent jump, scoring on just 27.6 percent of his shots in the first seven games and 47.6 of his takes in the past four outings.

Duke and Notre Dame have faced off in the regular season each of the past four seasons and three times in the NCAA postseason in that span ... Duke is 0-4 in the regular season and 3-0 in the NCAA Tournament games ... The most glaring difference in those games statistically speaking is Duke’s ability to stop Notre Dame’s offense ... In the regular season games, the Blue Devils have allowed 10.75 goals per game, while it drops to 7.0 in the NCAA Tournament.

Duke Statistics

RS

NCAA

Overall Record

0-4

3-0

Shots/Game

32.8

34.7

Goals/Game

5.5

8.3

Assists/Game

2.5

3.3

Points/Game

8

11.7

Shot %

0.218

0.24

GAA

10.75

7

GBs/Game

34

25

EMO

1-5(.200)

0-3 (.000)

Man Down

11-13 .(846)

4-8 (.500)

Clears

63-78 (.808)

29-32 (.941)

Faceoff %

42-78 (.538)

28-57 (.491)

On The Road

Since 2007, the Blue Devils are 21-8 in games played on an opponent’s campus ... The Blue Devils are 1-2 in true road games this season with losses at Maryland and Loyola.

Reaching the Perfect 10

Since 2007, Duke is 106-7 when scoring at least 10 goals in a game ... The Blue Devils are 13-24 when being held to fewer than 10 scores ... Duke is 31-25 when allowing 10 goals in a contest and is 87-6 when holding opponents under 10 goals.

Wolf Riding Point & Goal Scoring Streak

With two goals against Harvard, Jordan Wolf extended his nation’s-best point scoring streak to 52 games and his goal streak to 13 games ... His 13-game goal scoring streak is 10th among active players ... In his 52-game stretch, Wolf has 122 goals and 77 assists for 199 points ... He has failed to score a point in just five games in his career and Duke is 1-4 in those contests ... Wolf was last held scoreless in the 2011 NCAA semifinal against Maryland - May 28, 2011.

Wolf Climbing Career Lists

Wolf continues to move up the Duke, ACC and NCAA career lists ... His 250 points (153 goals and 97 assists) rank fourth in Duke history ... He is five points shy of taking over the No. 3 spot on the Duke career points list ... The senior captain also ranks in the top 10 in the ACC career records book in points, goals and is seven shy of making the top 20 list for assists.

Fowler Picking Up Where He Left Off

After setting the NCAA single-season record for faceoff victories in 2013, senior Brendan Fowler has picked up where he left off for the Blue Devils ... Fowler has taken all but 31 faceoffs this season and sports a .637 success rate ... He has picked up ground balls on 102 of his 160 faceoff wins (64 percent) ... For his career he has 675 faceoff victories and a .623 faceoff percentage ... Fowler is in just his second season as Duke’s faceoff leader having taken just 31 percent of the draws in 2011 and 2012.

Duprey Has Strong Defensive Presence

Senior longstick midfielder Luke Duprey is a commanding defensive presence as a longstick midfielder ... Duprey owns 85 career caused turnovers as he tries to become the first Blue Devil to amass 100 ... He has at least one caused turnover in seven games and three-plus four times ... Also a force on the faceoff wing and in the ground ball battle, Duprey owns 141 ground balls for his career and 33 this season to rank second behind Brendan Fowler ... Traditionally one of the more heavily penalized Duke players, Duprey has just five penalties for 4:30 in the past 10 games since committing three fouls for three minutes in the season opener.

Up Next

Duke finishes its ACC regular season schedule Friday, April 11 at Virginia at 6 p.m., on ESPNU.